Chat control: EU wants total control of messages
On Wednesday 11 May 2022, the European Commission is expected to publish the draft of a law on mandatory chat control. The chat control will be similar to Apple's "SpyPhone". Artificial intelligence-based control of all message content and images is provided directly on our devices.
Some US service providers like Gmail and Outlook.com are already running such automatic messaging and chat checks. The European Commission intends to oblige all chat, messaging and email service providers to implement this mass surveillance technology. The draft requires all communication content to be examined directly on our devices and diverted in case of suspicion. This Client-Side-Scanning would not be the first exaggerated and misleading surveillance method justified in the fight against child abuse.
This will be a bulk check that will even surpass end-to-end encryptions like Whatsapp's. By heavily monitoring chats, providers should automatically report suspicious messages and content to the postal police.
Bulk scanning not only attacks confidential communications at their base, it would also be ineffective, criminals already use channels that would not be affected by these scans and will be able to easily evade scans in the future.
With the right to telecommunications secrecy and the fundamental right to guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of IT systems, chat control suspends these two fundamental rights. Users lose control over what data they share with whom and how.
An artificial intelligence that examines abusive content will falsely mark even innocent content as illegal. Even the smallest error rates would lead to huge amounts of erroneously detected and blocked messages. Loads of irrelevant material will accumulate at checkpoints and prevent officials from carrying out important investigative work. Investigating authorities are already overloaded with data generated today.
Congressman and civil rights activist Dr. Patrick Breyer commented:
This espionage attack on our private messages and photos by error-prone algorithms is a giant step towards a Chinese-style surveillance state. Will the next step be for the post office to open and scan all the letters? Organized child pornography associations do not use e-mail or messaging services, but darknet forums. With its plans to crack secure encryption, the European Commission is putting the overall security of our private communications and public networks, trade and state secrets at risk to satisfy short-term surveillance desires. Opening the door to foreign intelligence services and hackers is completely irresponsible. To stop chat control, the network community must make itself heard.
The worry of knowing whether our messages can be considered suspicious, who can read them, and how unreliable they may be, will affect all of us.
References:
https://www.kiratas.com/eu-chat-control-european-big-brother-agency/
https://allnewspress.com/child-abuse-eu-presents-chat-control-law-politics/